scholarly journals Do Inequality Measures Measure Inequality?

2018 ◽  
pp. 207-220
Author(s):  
Gary S. Fields
Keyword(s):  
Economic Growth ◽  
Final Section ◽  
Inequality Measurement ◽  
Inequality Decomposition ◽  
Inequality Measures ◽  
The Poor ◽  
Absolute Inequality ◽  
The Rich ◽  
The Relationship

In the literature, much attention has been paid to a number of aspects of inequality including the distinction between relative and absolute inequality, axiomatization of inequality, the Lorenz criterion for inequality comparisons, properties of various inequality measures, and inequality decomposition. In no way do I wish to argue with the main results derived in these areas. Rather, my purpose here is to add to the theory of inequality measurement by dealing with one aspect of inequality which has been largely ignored by economists and by others. This is the question of how inequality changes – in particular, whether it increases, decreases, or remains unchanged – when income grows in specified ways. The balance of this chapter deals with two distinct conceptual entities, “inequality” and “inequality measures.” The next section analyzes how “inequality” might be said to change under various types of economic growth and explores the foundations for alternative views. One approach in terms of “elitism of the rich” and “isolation of the poor” is then described. The following section looks into the behavior of “inequality measures” and the relationship between “inequality measures” and “inequality,” and a final section draws some conclusions.

Theorising Empowerment Thought: Illuminating the Relationship between Ideology and Politics in the Contemporary Era

2000 ◽  
Vol 4 (4) ◽  
pp. 43-57 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dod Forrest
Keyword(s):  
Public Sector ◽  
Private Sector ◽  
Management Of Change ◽  
Supervisory Relationships ◽  
The Poor ◽  
East And West ◽  
The Rich ◽  
The Relationship

One response to the on-going crisis of profitability, East and West, has been to alter the form and content of supervisory relationships at work and in the community. The 1990s have been described as the empowerment era. A paradox exists however in that the idea of empowerment appeals to the rich and powerful and the poor and powerless. It is both liberatory and regulative. In this article the ideological polarity of empowerment is investigated in the context of the management of change in the workplaces of large private sector organisations and public sector welfare in Britain. It is argued that the growth of the idea of empowerment is central to politics in the contemporary era.

scholarly journals THE RICH AND THE POOR IN A SIMPLE MODEL OF GROWTH AND DISTRIBUTION

2016 ◽  
Vol 20 (7) ◽  
pp. 1934-1952 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kirill Borissov
Keyword(s):  
Economic Growth ◽  
Steady State ◽  
Simple Model ◽  
Disposable Income ◽  
State Equilibrium ◽  
Positional Concerns ◽  
The Poor ◽  
The Rich ◽  
Intertemporal Equilibrium ◽  
Unique Steady State

We consider a model of economic growth with altruistic agents who care about their consumption and the disposable income of their offspring. The agents' consumption and the offspring's disposable income are subject to positional concerns. We show that, if the measure of consumption-related positional concerns is sufficiently low and/or the measure of offspring-related positional concerns is sufficiently high, then there is a unique steady-state equilibrium, which is characterized by perfect income and wealth equality, and all intertemporal equilibira converge to it. Otherwise, in steady-state equilibria, the population splits into two classes, the rich and the poor; under this scenario, in any intertemporal equilibrium, all capital is eventually owned by the households that were the wealthiest from the outset and all other households become poor.

Income Inequality and Economic Development

2010 ◽  
Author(s):  
Matthew McKeever
Keyword(s):  
Economic Growth ◽  
Economic Development ◽  
Income Inequality ◽  
Poverty Reduction ◽  
Industrial Society ◽  
Considerable Debate ◽  
The Subject ◽  
The Rich ◽  
The Government ◽  
The Relationship

The nature of the relationship between economic development and income inequality has long been the subject of considerable debate. Economic growth has very different effects on poverty, depending on a country’s level of income inequality. In high inequality countries, economic growth that raises the overall level of income disproportionately tends to benefit the rich, whereas policies that encourage economic growth while reducing income inequality will greatly accelerate the achievement of poverty reduction goals. Thus, understanding how income inequality and economic development are linked is important for establishing economic growth policies that reduce poverty. The literature on the economic development–income inequality nexus in industrial society places emphasis on the causes of current social inequality. The central and most cited paper in the literature is S. Kuznets’s “Economic Growth and Income Inequality” (1955), which proposed an inverted U-shaped relationship between development and inequality over the course of industrialization. Some scholars have tried to build upon Kuznets’s theory by focusing on his claim that income inequality is a function of the nature of regulations put on the market. Other studies deal with the importance of studying the relationship between democracy and inequality, the effect of the nature of the government on shaping inequality compared to industrialization, and the implications of globalization for income inequality. This overview of the literature shows that there is little true consensus on the relationship between inequality and development and highlights two major areas for improvement: measurement and data quality.

scholarly journals Pengaruh Zakat, Infak, dan Sedekah terhadap Pertumbuhan Ekonomi Indonesia

2020 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
pp. 101
Author(s):  
Dewi Purwanti
Keyword(s):  
Economic Growth ◽  
Regression Analysis ◽  
Basic Needs ◽  
Poor People ◽  
Panel Regression ◽  
Distribution Of Wealth ◽  
The Poor ◽  
The Rich ◽  
Positive Effect

Zakat is obligatory for all Muslims while infaq and alms are sunah. Zakat, infaq, and alms (ZIS) make distribution of wealth from the rich to the poor people. If the poor people are able to fulfill their basic needs, they can work well and contribute positively to the economy in various sectors. Zakat, infaq, and alms are expected to be one of the alternative policies to increase economic growth. However, to find out whether zakat, infaq, and alms have succeeded in positively contribute to economic growth, research is needed to prove the existence of the influence of zakat, infaq and alms in Indonesia. The purpose of this study is to determine the effect of zakat, infaq, and alms on the economy. This study uses a panel regression analysis with driscoll and kraay standars errors. The results of this study showed that zakat, infaq, and alms have positive effect on Indonesia's economic growth.

scholarly journals Sirotinja između „kulture bede“ i Čuda u Milanu

2017 ◽  
Vol 12 (2) ◽  
pp. 349
Author(s):  
Ivana Gačanović
Keyword(s):  
Urban Poor ◽  
Theory And Practice ◽  
The Other ◽  
The Poor ◽  
Anthropological Study ◽  
Economically Marginalized ◽  
Artistic Interpretation ◽  
The Rich ◽  
Scientific Truth ◽  
The Relationship

The issue of understanding, empathy and the relationship to the poor, the socially and economically marginalized segments of most contemporary societies, represents one of the most challenging political socio-economic, humanist, and scientific problems of today. The paper compares two ways of understanding and representing the urban poor - anthropological and cinematographic. The theoretical and practical achievements of Oscar Lewis and his idea of the "culture of poverty" are given as an example of the anthropological study and understanding of the poor. On the other hand, an analysis of the representation of the poor in Vittorio De Sica's film Miracle in Milan (1951) is given as an example of the cinematographic treatment of the issue. The aim of this comparison is the confronting of two viewpoints – one which aims to get to the scientific truth about poverty and the other – which gives a subjective artistic interpretation of the "old and romantic story about the rich man and the pauper" and the consideration of their cognitive and interpretative effects and potential for an anthropological theory and practice on the issue which would be "better" and wider in scope.

scholarly journals Making Business Work for Development: Issues for Small to Medium Enterprises

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
Paul Thompson
Keyword(s):  
Economic Growth ◽  
Developing Countries ◽  
Poverty Alleviation ◽  
Global Economy ◽  
Poverty Reduction ◽  
Significant Proportion ◽  
Global Market ◽  
The Poor ◽  
The Rich ◽  
Medium Enterprises

<p>This thesis examines the question of whether business can be made to work for development. Can the standards that are used to measure development projects be applied to the outcomes of business ventures in developing countries? Proponents of neoliberal economic globalisation claim that economic growth is, by definition, good for the poor, and that the opening of global markets gives unprecedented opportunities for poverty reduction. 'Aid for Trade' is now a significant proportion of ODA funding. This is aid that is directed at assisting developing countries to be able to enter the global market. The claim is that the removal of trade barriers and the facilitation of smooth trade processes will be the key to achieving the MDG targets for poverty alleviation. Literature however suggests that such claims are much exaggerated, and that the global market does not automatically work to benefit the poor. Even where good rates of growth are achieved in a country, the poor are left behind, with widening income gaps between the rich and poor. This thesis examines these issues before investigating the concept of 'pro-poor business'. Economic growth can be structured to have positive benefits for the poor. It does not happen automatically, but it can be intentionally built into economic growth structures. There are some basic and fairly simple steps which all business could adopt to assist in poverty alleviation. Beyond this there are business ventures that are proactive in targeting the needs of poor communities. The thesis looks at case studies of six businesses started by expatriate entrepreneurs in six Asian countries. The businesses are investigated by a qualitative study that uses an emailed questionnaire followed up by further email and phone discussions. The businesses have been chosen to illustrate the possibilities over a range of types and sizes of business, and the degree to which they are intentional in targeting specific poverty issues. The businesses are asked questions both about their business structures and also about the extent to which they achieve development oriented goals. Issues faced by the businesses in this melding of business and development concerns are examined. The conclusion is that there are opportunities arising from globalisation that can be taken and shaped to enable the poor to become participants in the global economy.</p>

scholarly journals The Robin Hood Index Adjusted for Negatives and Equivalised Incomes

2021 ◽  
Vol 37 (4) ◽  
pp. 1047-1058
Author(s):  
Marion van den Brakel ◽  
Reinder Lok
Keyword(s):  
Gini Coefficient ◽  
Wealth Inequality ◽  
Income Transfer ◽  
Income Share ◽  
Robin Hood ◽  
Inequality Measures ◽  
The Poor ◽  
The Gini Coefficient ◽  
The Rich ◽  
Original Index

Abstract Indisputable figures on income and wealth inequality are indispensable for politics, society and science. Although the Gini coefficient is the most common measure of inequality, the straightforward concept of the Robin Hood index (namely, the income share that has to be transferred from the rich to the poor to make everyone equally well off) makes it a more attractive measure for the general public. In a distribution with many negative values – particularly wealth distributions – the Robin Hood index can take on values larger than 1, indicating an intuitively impossible income transfer of more than 100%. This article proposes a method to normalise the Robin Hood index. In contrast to the original index, the normalised Robin Hood index always takes on values between 0 and 1 and ends up as the original index in a distribution without negatives. As inequality measures are commonly applied to equivalised income, we also introduce a method for adequately transferring equivalised incomes from the rich to the poor within the framework of the (normalised) Robin Hood index. An empirical application shows the effect of normalisation for the Robin Hood index, and compares it to the normalisation of the Gini coefficient from previous research.

The Politics of Poverty

Social Change ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 49 (2) ◽  
pp. 232-240
Author(s):  
Digvijay Kumar
Keyword(s):  
Economic Growth ◽  
Poverty Reduction ◽  
Poverty Line ◽  
Poverty Rate ◽  
Social Dimensions ◽  
Welfare Policies ◽  
The Poor ◽  
The Social ◽  
The Rich ◽  
Poverty Levels

The reduction in the official poverty rate seen in relation with increasing morbidity status, a mammoth income gap between the rich and the poor, ambiguous methodology followed to calculate Below Poverty Line Census and government policies on poverty reduction tends to question the whole poverty line debate. The official commitment to higher economic growth may reflect booming economic growth but it also has led to a large gap between the rich and the poor in both regional and social dimensions. To look into the causes and ameliorate poverty levels, various committees and policies have identified poverty levels. Using different criteria and methods, they still have failed to look at the social and political aspects. It is politics that has engulfed the whole discourse over universalisation of social welfare policies as some sort of justification behind the nation’s fiscal deficit and subsidy constraint-related questions.

Who Believes in the American Dream?

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Carol Graham
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Survey Data ◽  
American Dream ◽  
Well Being ◽  
The United States ◽  
The Poor ◽  
Future Success ◽  
The Rich ◽  
The Relationship

This chapter goes on to ask who still believes in the American Dream. It begins with a review of what we know about the relationship between inequality, well-being, and attitudes about future mobility. It summarizes what we know from survey data on attitudes about inequality and opportunity in the United States, and then places those attitudes in the context of those in other countries and regions, based on new data and analysis with a focus on individuals' beliefs in the role of hard work in future success. Evidence suggests that the American Dream is very unevenly shared across socioeconomic cohorts. The poor and the rich in the United States lead very different lives, with the former having a much harder time looking beyond day-to-day struggles and associated high levels of stress, while the latter is able to pursue much better futures for themselves and their children, with the gaps between the two likely to increase even more in the future.

Aquaculture and poverty in the coastal areas of the Philippines.

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Xavier Iz ◽  
James R. Stevenson
Keyword(s):  
Methodological Approach ◽  
Poverty Line ◽  
The Philippines ◽  
The Poor ◽  
Poverty And Inequality ◽  
Overwhelming Evidence ◽  
Unskilled Workers ◽  
The Rich ◽  
The Relationship

Abstract The relationship between aquaculture and poverty was investigated in five coastal communities in the Philippines which practiced different forms of extensive and semi-intensive fish polyculture. The methodological approach combined the qualitative analysis of how this relationship was perceived by the surveyed households and a quantitative analysis of the levels and determinants of poverty and inequality in these communities. There is overwhelming evidence that aquaculture benefited the poor in important ways and that it was perceived positively by poor and non-poor alike. In particular, the poor derived a relatively larger share of their income from aquaculture than the rich, and a lowering of the poverty line only reinforced this result. Further, it was established that aquaculture represents an inequality-reducing source of income. The pro-poor character of aquaculture in this case study is explained by the fact that the sector provided employment to a large number of unskilled workers in communities characterised by large surpluses of labour.

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